House Panel Votes to Hike Base Pay to $4.25 in Bill Defying Veto Threat

Defying threats of a second presidential veto, the Democratic-controlled House Education and Labor Committee Tuesday agreed to raise the federal minimum wage to $4.25 an hour on Jan. 1, 1991.

The committee voted also to allow employers to pay a lower starting wage of $3.61 an hour for 60 days to newly hired employees with no previous experience in the labor force.

In contrast, a plan by President Bush would not raise the current minimum wage of $3.35 an hour until 1992, although he also would raise it to $4.25. Additionally, his plan would allow employers in 1992 to pay newly hired workers $3.40 a hour for six months, whether or not they had previous job experience.

The Democratic-dominated House is expected to pass the bill next month, and a similar measure has been prepared for Senate approval before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Bush previously delivered an ultimatum to Congress, vowing to veto any minimum wage bill if the top rate exceeded $4.25 an hour and did not include his conditions for a starting wage.

The President made good on his promise on June 13, rejecting a bill that raised the floor to $4.55 an hour and contained the 60-day starting wage provision.

Because the average hourly pay for private non-farm workers was $9.70 an hour last July, the fight over the minimum wage may involve greater political symbolism than economic impact. California, for example, already has a $4.25 minimum pay rate, and about a dozen other states have wage floors higher than the federal level.

But partisan lines were clearly drawn on the issue, with intensive lobbying for the increase by organized labor and heavy opposition from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups.

Rep. Augustus F. Hawkins (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the committee, noted that the Bush Administration has agreed to negotiate with Congress on clean air standards, drug policy and the federal budget, but not on an increase in the minimum wage.

White House officials have said that Bush’s veto of a minimum wage of $4.55 apparently inflicted little political damage. Rep. Austin J. Murphy (D-Pa.), a leading advocate of a minimum wage increase, said that he was informed Tuesday by Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Hanford Dole: “The President has no concessions.”